Water full of algae laps along the Sewell’s Point shore on the St. Lucie River under an Ocean Boulevard bridge, Monday, June 27, 2016 (Source: The Miami Herald)

Senate President Joe Negron on Tuesday filed a sweeping rewrite of his top priority legislation to build a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, abandoning plans to buy up to 60,000 acres of agriculture land and relying on more state-owned and state-leased sugar fields to store and clean water to be sent into Florida Bay, reports The Miami Herald.

Under the proposed amendment to SB 10, which will be presented Wednesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the state would convert state-owned land in the A-1 and A-2 parcels, currently being leased by Florida Crystals and Duda & Sons, and use it to create a 14-foot deep storage reservoir.

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